It's Not a Question, But a Lesson Learned in Time
by imtakingallyoudownwithme
Summary: First of the trilogy. Natalie Williams has a chance encounter to travel with the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack. When she takes it, she experiences many wild adventures, the memories which will last a lifetime. There will be romance... eventually.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone, and welcome to the story! I hate writing introductions but here we go...

Without giving away too much of the plot, the main character is eighteen, just finished College (High School/Secondary College for those who live outside the UK, which includes me, don't worry) and her timeline is based in 2010.

HOWEVER! The story will be based in series one, which means that it will feature the ninth doctor to begin with, for all intents and purposes majority of the time it will be 2005, and there will be Rose, and there will be Captain Jack. This is all possible because, you guessed it. WIBBLY-WOBLY TIMEY WIMEY!

In all seriousness, I wanted to do something different rather than just start at the episode "Rose" and re-hash it all to include my character. It also gives younger Doctor Who fans the chance to relate to the character, as it's a bit closer to home.

That's all I really have to say now without giving too much of the plot away.

I will say this though: this story will be a triology. It's going to be more "M" rated than the PG rating the show has, so kind of like Doctor Who as if it aired Torchwood style. If this isn't your thing turn back now, but I will say right now there will be no outright sex scenes. So I guess if that's also your thing turn back now, but I will have enough mature things in here to keep a crude crowd happy.

Alright now I am rambling, so here's the story, and if there's anything else I need to add I'll include it later.

Title Credit: Good Riddance (Time of your Life) - Green Day. All three parts of the trilogy will have lyrics taken from this song as the title.

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><p><em>Let's hang out another night yeah? I need to have two beers before cricket tomorrow so I'm going to the pub<em>

I groaned in disgust, as I picked up my phone and received this message. Scoffing, I put the phone down and sat on my computer chair, deep in thought.

I didn't even like the guy, I was only casually dating him at the time being because, well, to be frank just because I could. I wasn't leading the poor guy on and I kept insisting to him I wanted nothing serious, but at the same time he was being what people saw of the stereotypical female and not men, accepting of my wishes but thinking he could change my mind.

When you cancel existing plans to go to the pub, I don't think so.

I snapped out of being deep in thought and realised my predicament. I had spent a long time on my hair tonight, just to stay at home tonight on the computer or watching movies? I don't think so. I was all dressed up with nowhere to go.

I picked up the mobile, and began texting a few friends.

An hour slowly passed, with three out of five friends texting back saying they weren't free to do anything tonight. I knew I wouldn't hear from the other two tonight, or at least a lot later when it was too late to do anything.

So instead I got all dressed up and got on the tube to London city centre by myself. A lot of people were too scared to go out by themselves. Some were scared for their safety, while at the other end of the scale some were scared of the social repercussions of being seen out alone.

I was tough, I'd seen the face of danger quite a few times and could cleverly talk myself out, the times I couldn't I was able to physically remove myself one way or another. Besides, I wasn't planning on getting that drunk tonight, as I had to work tomorrow. However I was probably the poster child of 'going out for a quiet one and ending up stumbling through the door and passing out on the hallway' so I shouldn't make any assumptions yet.

There were plenty of pubs to choose from, and because it was a Friday night there were plenty of patrons for after work drinks. I chose a regular pub I went to with a number of friends, it was a pub I used to sneak into when I was underage. The first time I ever got drunk was here at the tender age of sixteen. Ahh, I'm full of class.

I walked in, and noticed that all three levels were quite full of people. I smirked inwardly to myself, plenty of groups of men to flirt with, and when I got bored I could go to a different level and the previous group would be none the wiser.

I cracked my knuckles for the dramatic effect, fluffed up my hair and then made my way to the bar for the kill.

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><p>I had somehow ended up on the dance floor with a guy I had been snogging most of the night. He was pretty cute, neat black hair, nice business suit. We had been dancing a little dirty on the dance floor, and alarm bells went off just a tad. I was a big flirt, but when it came to anything further than snogging I didn't go there. I was all talk, and I knew it.<p>

"Should we go somewhere a little more quiet? Perhaps, my apartment?" The man (who's name was Desmond) asked, a sly smile on his face.

I didn't find this sleazy, at least not yet. He has every right to ask, or test the waters to see if I would go forward with what he wanted to do. It was if he tried to press forward and I didn't want to, then he would be upgraded to sleaze.

"Um, not tonight. Sorry Desmond, I have to work tomorrow, I definitely have to go home tonight." I said to him, stepping away from him. He however, took a step forward.

"Aw come on babe, I'll cook you breakfast and drive you home tomorrow. What do you say?" Desmond asked me, wrapping an arm around my torso and leaning in for a kiss.

I had to suppress a smirk. How many girls had fallen for something similar, only to be tossed out of the apartment in the morning, or even earlier. I had said no, Desmond proceeded. He had now moved into sleaze territory. I had to remove myself from the situation before it got dangerous.

"I'm just going to go to the toilet, alright?" I smiled at Desmond, before slinking off.

My plan was to go to the toilet, slip out of the busy pub and then go home and sleep, and get up for work tomorrow. I was a drink away from getting drunk, it was beginning to get late, and if I stayed longer I'd have to deal with Desmond. No thanks.

As I was metres away from the toilet, a hand grabbed out to me. I spun around and found myself to face a young couple at the bar together. The girl was somewhere around my age, and was quite pretty even if she was a little bit of a chav, with bleach blonde hair and dark eyebrows which showed it wasn't her natural hair colour. It still suited her, but I bet she looked better with her natural hair colour. Her boyfriend had a dark complexion, and looked a little older than her.

"We've been watching you for a while. You don't seem too keen on him. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Just remember that." The blonde girl informed me, sending me a small smile.

A lot of people wouldn't like to be spoken to like that, feeling that they were being babied or it was no one else's business. I however had to smile. Not many people care about their fellow neighbour these days, so it was absolutely lovely that this stranger was making sure I was okay.

"Awww, well thank you. I'll be fine, my plan is to go to the toilet and then do the old slip-a-roo by sneaking out and going home. I do have work tomorrow." I informed her.

"Well, alright. We'll keep a lookout for you just in case until you go home," The blonde stated with a frown but quickly chirped up "Nice to meet you by the way, I'm Rose."

"I'm Natalie. Thank you for looking out for me. Hopefully I'll seeya around." I smiled, and then looked at the man with her. He just blankly stared at me, and then I realised he still had yet to say something. I put it down to shyness and apathy.

As Rose said goodbye back I turned around and went into the toilet. I made my way into a cubicle.

After I finished my business in the cubicle I went to the sinks to wash my hands, but was greeted by a familiar person who was sitting on the small bench area that was next to the sinks.

"H-Hey Desmond. What are you doing in here?" I stammered out, uneasy that my plans to ditch him by sneaking out of the toilets were now foiled, and the fact that he had the balls to come in here in the first place.

"If you don't want to go back to mine, maybe we could have some fun in here instead?" He offered, and I rolled my eyes.

This guy had a big attitude and ego problem if he was going to push this hard when I had made it very clear it was not going to happen tonight. It was time to now be blunt.

I took a step forward, to give myself confidence and to empathise my point.

"Desmond, no. I need to go home. It isn't going to happen tonight." I firmly stated, keeping a blank face and looking him directly in the eyes.

"Okay, come sit on the bench with me. Let's talk a little more before you go home." Desmond suggested, patting the spare space next to where he was sitting.

I stopped to think about what he was proposing. I could stay out for just a little bit longer in order to have enough sleep before work tomorrow. Having some time to sober up a little before I hit the pillow would help kill a potential hangover tomorrow as well, so that was a good thing. It would also be easier to confirm to Desmond nothing was going to happen tonight, and I wouldn't have to worry if he was following me once I left.

A cheeky little snog before I left wouldn't go astray either.

"In the female toilets?" I asked, cocking up an eyebrow. "Well, okay. If you're game."

I propped myself up onto the bench. Ten seconds of silence followed, before Desmond pushed me onto my back, and his large frame hovered over my average sized one.

"Desmond what are you-" I squealed, but he cut me off by pushing his mouth to mine forcibly, and grabbed my face roughly in what he thought was probably a turn on, when in reality it was the opposite. Maybe that last snog wasn't such a good idea.

He began to trace his fingers up my leg, and kept going until he was just outside of my panties. It was now that he stopped kissing me to come up for air.

"What are you doing Desmond?" I screeched, and he quickly shut my mouth forcibly by grabbing my jaw roughly with his big hands.

"I'm going to finger you for a bit, make you really want me. Don't worry babe, you'll be enjoying this. I'm no rapist." Desmond smirked, and I slowed my breathing.

Okay, relax Natalie. There's a way out of this. Screaming won't do anything, I'm a weak girl and he's much stronger. He might also panic and do something to me that may injure me or put me in jeopardy. It's a ladies' toilet in a busy pub. Someone will be coming in soon, there's no doubt about it. My best bet was to keep him talking, keep him distracted until help could come.

I was about to implement my plan, but luckily I was saved earlier than I thought. Rose came waltzing in, dragging her boyfriend by the wrist. The second Desmond noticed them; he quickly sat up, and adjusted the tent that had grown in his business pants.

I sat up quickly myself, and pulled my dress down.

There was silence for a few moments, until I approached Desmond. I threw a punch, before grabbing my bag and bolting out, darting down the stairs quickly before he could grab a bouncer. The downstairs area was quite packed, and I tried to weave through the crowds, but I ended up bumping into a few people and threw a quick sorry behind me, before I was outside in the street.

It was now that I slowed down as I made my way towards the station. However not too long after I hit the street, I heard two pairs of footsteps running towards me.

I quickly turned around, afraid it was Desmond and a bouncer but I was relieved to find Rose and her boyfriend, and my breathing then shallowed out again.

"Was that slime ball forcing himself onto you?" She asked me loudly, still panting from the run to catch up to me.

"I hope you're alright. That was a good punch." Her boyfriend said to me, and I smiled at him, this was the first thing he had said to me all night.

I looked down, feeling very awkward. I wanted to just get home and sleep, I didn't want awkward sympathies. I got into a bad situation, but I managed to escape. I didn't feel violated because I got out in the nick of time; in fact talking about it was the only thing making it feel worse. I'd survive.

"I-I'm fine thanks. I'm just going to get the tube home, and I'll be fine. Thanks though. For checking up on me." I awkwardly smiled, but began to back away slowly to empathise I was getting the hell out of there.

"Wait! You can't go home by yourself, it's too dangerous. Please, at least let us give you a ride home." Rose called out, reading my body language that I was trying to get out of their presences.

I was about to decline her kind offer, but then shut my mouth. A ride home would get me home a lot faster, which would mean more sleep for work tomorrow. I have in the past turned up to work with less sleep, and a lot more to drink the previous night, but it was awful and I should accept all the help I could get. Besides, more arguing meant more time it took to get home.

"Sure, I've got the directions on my iPhone. It should be easy enough." I smiled at her.

"iPhone? Oh, right, yeah. Phones these days are pretty smart aren't they? If you're able to get directions on it and all. I mean just a few years ago, like 2005 for example, they didn't have any of that." Rose said to me, as she grabbed me by my shoulders and started directing me to where their group had parked their vehicle, her boyfriend close behind.

"Oh god. In 2005 I still had a Nokia 3310. People thought it was outrageous that I had a mobile phone when I was thirteen, albeit an outdated one, even for then. Now you see seven year olds running around with smart phones and no one bats an eyelid." I ranted to Rose, only slurring my words a tiny bit as I was still in the delicate grey area between tipsy and drunk.

She said nothing, but stopped for a second to study my face intensely. I gave her a weird look and raised my eyebrows hoping for an answer, but didn't get one for a few moments, and until we were walking again.

"You were thirteen in 2005. That's...I don't know. It's amazing. Timelines are just so complicated even in the most simple situations." Rose remarked to me, her smile growing wider.

I took a few moments to try and understand what she meant. I was sobering up a little, but I was still tipsy as stated before. Maybe I was too affected by alcohol to completely understand what she meant?

"If you mean that it's weird that only five years ago I was just a kid, and now I'm eighteen, legally an adult, a lot more educated but still as ignorant, recently finished college yet I feel more lost than a child as this is the first time I'm without guidance when it comes to schooling, then yeah, timelines are weird like that, yo." I replied, my intelligent response becoming a lot more silly by the end, as my attention started to decline.

Rose turned to look back at Mickey, who shrugged his shoulders. I cocked my head, unsure why she was now shooting a look at Mickey.

"The Doctor is going to like you! Come on, let's hurry. I'm excited to see what he thinks of you." Rose grinned, moving her hand that was guiding me by my shoulders, to replace it onto my arm where she grabbed tight and started almost jogging, pulling me along to our destination.

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><p><strong>AN: **So there's the first chapter, hope you liked it. Each chapter is going to be between 2500-3000 words long, depending what feels natural. I'll try and update once a week, but I go back to uni soon which is going to be full on, as well as the fact that before then I need to finish other stories for other fandoms which are over four years old. But even then, if I update weekly it's only about a page a day, that's manageable really.


	2. Chapter 2

Sorry this took a while to get out. Uni started up again and it's really intense, unlike the past few years I've decided to put in lots of effort for my final year so I actually go to every class, and spend almost all my spare time studying. I've also been volunteering for the student union and I joined the cheerleading team so I don't have much time for writing anymore. I do plan on updating a lot more nowadays, I've been trying to do 1-2 pages a day and if I do this, I can easily update once a week. Just watch me

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><p>Rose eventually led me out to a wide-open area, where I assumed we would be meeting up with her friends.<p>

"Mickey is just around for today. I'm travelling with two friends. There's The Doctor, who is the most amazing person you'll ever meet. Seriously, words do not do him justice about how brilliant he is." Rose remarked loudly, a huge smile on her face.

I looked behind her to specifically monitor Mickey's reaction. As her boyfriend I was guessing he wasn't too pleased to hear his girlfriend place another man on such a high pedestal, and openly admit this friend was more "amazing" than he was.

My assumptions were correct as the second Rose began her statement, Mickey had a sour look on his face that stayed there long after she finished.

I sent him a sad smile as I was unsure what to do, but I remained silent. I barely knew Rose and Mickey so it would be highly inappropriate to make a comment at this stage.

"Then there's Jack. Captain Jack Harkness," Rose began sarcastically, but then her tone became more serious "He's a huge flirt, so you better watch out. Right little pretty thing like you, he'll be all over you. He's not dangerous but I think you've had enough adventure for one night."

"Pssh, whatever. With practice I've become a master at getting rid of creepy guys. Nothing I can't handle." I winked at Rose, and began to lean on the blue 1950's style Police Call Box replica we were now standing in front of.

I knew what these things were as I had seen one in a museum with my father once. He then told me how he barely remembers a few being around when he was small and as he began to grow they were phased out. I had never seen this one here before, but didn't care to question it in my current state.

"So uh, yeah. This is the TARDIS. Just give me a second to explain everything to my friend who will be the transporter tonight." Rose said to me, taking a key from around her neck to open the door of this thing.

She threw a look back at me, obviously trying to read my reaction about why she was going into a little blue box to meet her friends but I only sent her a shrug. There were probably a few reasons why people would congregate in there and I would most likely find out soon anyway.

"Wait for me Rose. I wouldn't put it past that Doctor of yours to leave me stranded here." Mickey said to Rose in a dark, worried tone before quickly rushing in behind her.

Then everything went silent for a few minutes, besides the sound of River Thames gently crashing nearby.

A few people were walking by and gave me weird looks as I was now sitting next to the police box (Or "TARDIS" as Rose had called it) on the ground with my legs crossed.

I heard the door open and I turned my head quickly to see a man come out. He turned to me and grinned widely.

"Hello." He greeted, not letting his grin falter.

"Hi. Look, I'm really tired and my buzz is draining rapidly. Would you mind sitting next to me if you want to talk?" I asked but then realised how rude I sounded and lightened up "Sorry"

He said nothing, but sat down directly in front of me. It was then I was able to get a good look at him. I couldn't get a good look at his stature with him sitting down, but I found myself rolling my eyes at how stereotypically good-looking he was.

Dark short hair that was in a stylish cut, bright blue eyes that one weaker than me could easily get lost in, one of those rare sort of smiles that could light up an entire room and to top it all off he had a very strong jaw line.

"Rose said we were having a guest. I had o be a good host and come out to introduce myself. I'm Captain Jack Harkness." The man introduced, not dropping his cheesy smile as he offered his hand.

I smiled back and took it, to be polite mostly considering how nasty my next comment was going to sound.

"I don't know what's more pretentious. The fact that you use your title when introducing yourself in a social setting, or the fact that you use your full name." I smirked at him, moving my legs from being crossed to hugging them into my chest.

"Oh, ouch. It looks like you attempted to hurt my feelings, which may have worked on a weaker man than myself." This 'Jack' guy smirked, not deterred by my negative remarks.

"Look, I'm sorry. When sober I'm not really a bitch, or this straight forward. I would usually keep all these thoughts inside my head." I said to him, smiling softly as I began to soften up when I realised he was still being polite despite what I was saying.

"No, it's fine. I'm used to being able to charm my way into anyone's heart. Men like a challenge, right?" Jack asked me, and I felt annoyance with him rise in my body again.

"Because every woman likes being objectified to the point of being referred to as a 'challenge'?" I retorted sarcastically.

He went to open his mouth, but a second person coming out of the police box stopped him from saying his reply. I looked on, waiting for this stranger to introduce himself.

"Hello, I'm The Doctor. Rose told me all about your night tonight and said you were stuck and needed a lift home?" The stranger said to me.

"Hey, um, yeah. If that's alright, don't want you guys to have to go out of your way." I said to him, looking down in embarrassment. I always felt a bit guilty and embarrassed when someone I know asked someone they know to do me a favour, and this was no different.

"That is absolutely fine, if you need to get somewhere you definitely stumbled across the right person. I can take you anywhere in the universe. What's your full name? I like knowing about a person I just met, it adds to my knowledge bank." The stranger (The Doctor?) asked me, being eccentric the entire time.

Before I could even question what in the world he meant by saying 'the universe' Jack spoke up.

"Apparently it's pretentious using full names around her." Jack said, but sent me a wink to show he was being sarcastic in a joking way and was not really serious. I just made a face at him back.

"It's pretentious to refer to yourself as 'Captain Jack Harkness' when introducing yourself outside of whatever your captain duties entail. Plus you're wearing a world war two coat, anything you do or say just screams pretentious," I said to Jack but then turned to The Doctor to introduce myself "I'm Natalie Williams"

"Ease up on Captain Jack, he needs something to feel important, right? Besides I can't really talk about pretentiousness, my title is 'The Doctor'" The Doctor responded.

"Where'd you get 'The Doctor' from anyway? It's kinda goofy, but it's cool, and unique. I like it." I smiled at The Doctor, as he took a few steps back towards the police box.

"That's the first time someone has thought into my title and questioned it in a long time, besides from the usual 'Doctor Who?' Natalie Williams, I like you." The Doctor grinned.

I only beamed as a response. It was basic human instinct to be liked. If we learn someone doesn't like us for any reason, we either lash out and get angry, or get offended and sad. But when we find out someone likes us, we get the opposite effect. We feel all warm and fuzzy inside. That was me right now, plus alcohol, yeah, I was beaming.

"First girl to not fall for my charms either, even the wink didn't break down her walls. You're an interesting one." Jack remarked to me.

"I like you more. Now come on, the night is moving on. Rose said you have work tomorrow, I feel sorry for you, you'll be in such a state when you wake up tomorrow." The Doctor said, stepping into the TARDIS.

As I was still sitting on the ground, Jack got up first and offered me his hand to get up. In my drunken state I was having difficulty getting up so I accepted it, but then rolled my eyes at how he took it as a 'success'

I then followed The Doctor into the TARDIS, unsure of what to expect, and boy was I surprised.

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><p>The next morning, I was in a bad state. I'd definitely had worse hangovers, but I definitely felt groggy and I had that annoying pain in your head that was a headache technically, but felt different to your normal non-hangover headaches.<p>

I was also dead tired, I probably only got three or four hours sleep.

However, that was the easy part to deal with. I was able to drag myself out of bed, eat some toast, pop a few painkillers and down a Berocca before running out the door to get to the bus stop in time.

No, I had to deal with really freaking weird memories from last night. Meeting Rose and Mickey was normal. Captain Jack the flirt was normal, hell even "The Doctor" appearing out of a blue police box was fairly normal.

Then, when I stepped in after being told this was my ride home, the thing was bigger on the inside. It was tiny on the outside, but stepping in, it was the size of a hotel. I didn't question it in my drunken state, I shrugged and said there was obviously a purpose and a way it could somehow be bigger, as I was seeing it with my own two eyes. The Doctor then claimed he "liked me even more" after that remark.

So then he uses it to fly me home, we step out of the box and were smack bang in the middle of my street, twenty seconds later.

The Doctor mumbled something about how "lucky I was" that 2010 was easy to navigate and I could have accidentally ended up back or forwards in time.

So that happens, and then I was at home. I remember I didn't know how to say goodbye, it was always awkward meeting people and spending time with them or having a conversation when you knew you'd never see them again. In my drunken state I said that to all four of them.

The Doctor then piped up we should all go on one adventure together, and that he would pick me up at six o' clock, giving me two hours after work to get ready and relax. Rose was ecstatic and said she'd love to have "another girl" on board, and Jack seemed pretty pleased too. Mickey just said he wouldn't be there as The Doctor was taking him home now, and he didn't quite like the idea of travelling through time with a 900 year old alien, and a man from the 51st century. No idea what he meant, but I had no time to ask for the story.

Of course none of this actually would have happened. I'm sure I passed out in the car or on the street and then had some crazy dream. I usually didn't dream or hallucinate on alcohol, but this time I had.

I believed I met Rose, Mickey, Jack and The Doctor, I just know I must have passed out or blacked out after the police box replica, and my crazy mind made up the rest, probably through a dream on the way back.

I smiled as I replayed the memories over and over in my mind as I was working, in the deli department of a supermarket. A few customers seemed happy as I served them that I had a wide smile on my face; at least it seemed to make it less obvious I was very hungover. Dream or not, it was a pretty rad experience either way.

It was now more than obvious it was all just a dream, as it was eight pm and there was no sign of the four I met the previous night. I did shower after work as I always do, but I didn't even bother getting ready, as I knew it wouldn't happen. Two hours past the time they said they'd pick me up, definitely not true.

I was now snuggled on the couch with a blanket and my pyjamas, watching some trashy American reality crap.

The first sign that something weird was going to happen was that my cat jumped up from it's rested state, and immediately began hissing at something unknown. I had no idea what it was, it was unlike my cat who was now quite senior to have the energy to go from a resting position to immediately be on it's feet, back raised and quite distressed, letting out loud hisses. Especially at nothing in particular.

Then that's when the noises started. I couldn't quite explain it, as it was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was a strange kind of whirring sound, and it had appeared out of nowhere. I was too scared to look out of my window, what could this thing be, and what if I open the curtain and find a creepy looking thing staring back at me? I find being home alone scary enough and always have to have the curtains and blinds shut constantly, add this to the mix, I was a little freaked out.

I then heard a knock at my door. It wasn't too loud, but it was a firm two knocks.

Oh god, oh god, oh god what do I do? My first reaction was to call the police. But then I knew that was silly.

"Hey officer, I heard a whirring noise, my cat hissed and someone only gave two knocks at my door."

I knew they'd instantly just assume it was something normal. In fact, it most probably was. It was only eight PM on a Saturday night; tonnes of people would still be up and about. For those going out, their nights still had yet to start.

I was still a little bit freaked out, but when I let my nerves settle and thought in a more practical manner I worked up the courage to open the door.

I smoothed out my pyjama top, thankful I was still wearing a bra, and pulled down my pyjama shorts to make sure I looked a little more presentable before heading over to the front door and opening it up just a crack.

I gasped in shock and closed the door whilst my brain stopped functioning for a moment, but then opened it again as I now had a guest at the door, and I had to double check if who I really thought was at the door really was.

"Thought it was all just a dream didn't you?" Captain Jack Harkness grinned at me, and I crossed my arms, ready to deal with his cockiness.

I however then shook my head and smiled, dropping my arms. There was no need to be rude, he was telling the truth. I kind of liked his greeting too, it was cocky in a way, but it was confident. I'd rather be stuck on a desert island with a friendly and confident guy than a guy and awkward one.

Maybe I was a bit too hard on the guy last night. Usually I'd apologise, but in reality it would most likely make things more awkward, so it was perhaps best just to move on.

"Um, yeah, I kind of did. I believed I met you guys and stuff, but I didn't believe the whole police box-TARDIS time travelling thing that got me home. I assumed I just slept in the car and dreamt it all up." I confessed to Jack, biting my lip a little due to the social anxiety seeping through me.

"What's that got to do with the fact we agreed to hang out with you tonight? That could have still happened in the car." Jack said to me, raising an eyebrow.

"I um…in that case, it would have just been a dream. But judging from your reaction, you ARE from the magical blue box just trying to trick me otherwise, you're also late, so that skewed my thoughts." I said to Jack confidently, however a blush was growing on my face, I could feel my face heating up.

"Nah, I'm just stirring you. This would be the part where I'd hug you as a greeting and a way to shrug off what I just joked about, but judging from your attitude towards me last night, maybe it's not for the best." Jack said to me, and although he sounded serious he was sending me a wide smile to show to not take it too seriously.

"Oh, no, that's fine. I'm sorry about last night, I wasn't in the best mood. Different people have different greetings, I only go in for a hug with close friends, but I've never denied one." I shrugged, but smiled to show him I wasn't completely apathetic.

"Well then." He smiled brightly, leaning in and squeezing me quite tightly before letting me go.

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><p>Running word count: 5539<p>

I'm doing a running word count as I'm curious about how many words my story will be, the word count on here isn't accurate as it doesn't take into account introductions.


	3. Chapter 3

A little over ten minutes later I found myself closing my front door and making my way to the strange blue box that was occupying my front yard. I nervously tapped on the double doors at the front and gasped in surprise as the doors suddenly jolted open. I shakily stepped in, closing the doors behind me before taking in the sight before me.

It was exactly how I remembered from last night; my state last night hadn't altered it at all. I just couldn't explain how amazing the sight in front of me was. Take every positive adjective in the English language and that may come close.

"Hi again Natalie, you look lovely." Rose said to me as she briskly walked towards me and engulfed me into a light hug.

I hugged back, but shot a look towards Jack to not reference our previous conversation. He remained silent but was sending me a grin the entire time.

"Nice to see you again Doctor, thank you for having me on board." I grinned at the Doctor politely, taking his hand and shaking it for added effect.

"Well with manners like those you are more than welcome." The Doctor replied.

"So while you were getting changed, we all decided to go to the eighties." Rose grinned at me.

I only gulped and nodded my head as a response. It was definitely now believable this may be possible after what I had witnessed and been introduced to in the last twenty-four hours. I was told about the time travel last night, I think I recall asking after we landed on my street less than twenty seconds after we were stationed next to the River Thames.

A weird feeling still washed over me. I was born in the nineties, I missed out on the eighties by three whole years. It was something I could ever hear stories about, or see on T.V. or hear first hand stories from relatives. It was something intangible, it wasn't like it was a tourist spot you could fly to. But now, it was tangible. Now it was something you could fly to on a holiday, as if it was France or Spain. The closest I had come to the eighties was the time I spent as a kid going through my mother's wardrobe.

I think breaking down what was now tangible was more of the shock than the fact we were about to travel in time. That was easier to get over than whatever sceptical thoughts were meant to go through my head.

"You'll be alright, you can hold my hand if you feel a bit nervous." Jack winked at me.

"How do these lines work so well on women? I'm sorry, I don't mean to be insulting, I really don't. They're textbook and they're perfect, but they just come across as more of an ironic satire kind of thing, than something serious." I replied to him, trying to smile to show I wasn't reverting to last night's remarks.

"That's the thing about courting romance, it's hard to do it on the over analytical." The Doctor said, answering for Jack.

"Oi! I was um, flattered by Jack the first time I met him." Rose piped up, trying to save herself at the end of her statement.

"That's because you're a good person, Rose Tyler. You don't need to analyse people, you see the good in them from the beginning." The Doctor said to Rose, and I could tell he was being completely honest and wasn't trying to damage control offending her.

"So what? You're saying Natalie is smart but doesn't have a heart, but I'm dumb and I do?" Rose spat at The Doctor.

Before he could reply, Jack grabbed me by the shoulders and led me away; this time I knew it was completely platonic.

"So um, usually I stay away from these kind of social politics. But I have to ask. What's the deal between Rose and The Doctor?" I asked Jack curiously, tuning out of their discussion.

"Heh, heh. It's okay. Their chemistry is easy to spot a mile away, isn't it? That's why it's up to us to not get involved, but at the same time, help pave the path towards whatever relationship is forming between them." Jack stated to me.

"Ha, okay. Look, about what I just said, I really didn't mean to appear bitchy. Like last night, it was inappropriate of me to say, I should have kept my mouth shut. But I was just stating what you seem to say seems so ironic and not genuine, but Rose was telling me how well it works, but you know what? More the power to you." I stated to Jack, mirroring the winks he always seemed to send.

"It's alright. I get what you're saying. It even surprises me how easily cheesy pick up lines make people swoon. It started as a joke with a few friends as an adolescent but it worked. A monster was created and I never really changed the plan. It works on both men and women, but most of the time it's harmless fun. So um, yeah. That's me in a nutshell, Captain Jack Harkness. Now you know me skin deep." Jack said to me, and the joking tone he used was completely gone by the end of his sentence, he was completely serious.

"Men are easy to pick up, you lot react to anything. But your game with women is great, I'm jealous." I smiled at him, hoping we had both now broken the ice.

"Alright, now that's settled, off to the fabulous 80s!" The Doctor exclaimed loudly, and I jolted my head over to see the current situation.

Rose was grinning madly, looking at the floor and playing with the bottom of her jacket. Whatever The Doctor had said had worked, as she was absolutely beaming. I'd be worried that The Doctor would easily be able to read how badly infatuated she seemed to be with him, but he was far too busy running around the console working the thingamajig to notice.

"I wasn't joking or being flirty, by the way. If you want to hold my hand for moral support, you're more than welcome to. No pick-up line intended." Jack said to me, shooting me a genuine smile.

"These are the lines that work on girls like me, just for your information." I responded, shooting him a smile back before putting my hand in his, as we began jolting around.

The first thing I noticed when we stepped out of the seedy London alleyway was that the fashion was pretty toned down. Luckily The Doctor was a lot more observant and managed to see an advertisement billboard that said something along the lines of "It's August 1982 – can you afford to be seen without it?"

As I said though, the fashion was tame. Luckily for us, we were dressed pretty versatile. The Doctor was wearing his leather jacket and jeans combo from last night, and Jack was also wearing his world war two coat from last night too. Rose was quite casual, she had her hair naturally down, and was wearing light jeans, a black top and a black jacket over it. I had come dressed just a little preppy, no pink luckily. I only had a few moments to spare when I was getting ready, so before I stepped out I quickly brushed my hair and very sloppily ran my straightener through it, grabbed a white skirt, a navy thin woollen pullover that I wore without a shirt underneath and navy knee-high pull up socks. I was a person that dressed however I felt like, some days I could be very preppy, some days I could be plain and some days I'd be dressed grunge, or alternative or anything along those lines.

It made sense the clothing style for 1982 wasn't the 1980s envisioned in my head. The early 2000s rode the fashion styles of the late 90s, and pop culture followed. The same boy bands that rocked the charts in 1998 were still rocking the charts in 2002, and teenagers were still wearing the same belly button showing shirts that Britney Spears wore. Even now, in 2010, we're still exactly the same as say, 2008 or 2009. It would take a couple of years for our new decade to adopt new styles.

"So what do you two lovely ladies plan to do in 1982?" Jack asked Rose and I, not even bothering to acknowledge The Doctor who was the one who bought us here.

"We should go to a disco! Or um, a dance? What do they call it in the 80s?" Rose feverishly stated, but became confused by the end of her statement.

"Disco music is still around, but becoming quite unfashionable. Put that together with the anti-disco movement, if anyone heard you right now they'd think you were being quite uncool Rose," The Doctor said, but then turned to me "Hm…by 2010 the word 'cool' was long gone, so in your case Natalie, if you use both the words 'cool' and 'disco' you are um… 'not awesome'"

"Whatever it's called, I think we should go to it. It sounds like fun." Jack agreed.

"Yeah, I'm down with going to a dance or disco or whatever. I just don't be drinking, not after last night." I weakly smiled.

"Oh, very well then. Luckily we landed in a good part of London for that sort of stuff." The Doctor said to us, and motioned to across the road where there was a bustling pub.

Rose said nothing but grabbed my hand and dragged me over. Jack said nothing as well, but briskly followed, and as we approached the bouncer outside he quickly slipped something into my hand. I gave him an odd look, and looked at what he had given me. It was a small blank piece of paper in-between some leather binding.

"When they ask for ID, use it." Jack whispered to me, so the bouncer wouldn't hear.

"Good evening ladies, do you have your ID on you? We've had recent crack downs unfortunately, we used to be able to trust our patrons." The bouncer said to Rose and I.

I smiled at the difference. Back home, you had to present your ID whether you clearly looked over the age of 18 or not. Some places scanned it even. It was nice that there wasn't that same breach of privacy here, and there was a little trust.

Rose presented a similar looking paper to mine, and I decided to follow her lead, and although I felt confused I tried to look as confident as I could.

"That all seems to be order, thank you." The bouncer said, moving the ropes to let us in.

As we began stepping in, I looked at the paper and then nearly dropped it in shock. On it was a printed drivers license that showed my real name, my picture and my real address. However the date of birth had changed, now it said I was born in June 1964 instead of 1992. It had adapted to what I needed. This was pretty awesome.

"Let's go for a dance on the dance floor. I don't mind 80s music!" Rose exclaimed in an excited manner, grabbing my wrist and dragging me off before I could protest.

"What about The Doctor and Jack?" I asked Rose.

"Who cares? Let's party!" She grinned as she let go, beginning to dance as we were now in the middle of the dance floor.

* * *

><p>Rose and I had been dancing all night and having lots of fun. We both decided to not drink, she said she wasn't in the mood and wanted to enjoy 1982 properly whilst I was not touching it again for a while after last night.<p>

We had danced with heaps of people, both groups of girls and boys of all age groups, and it was fun. It was mostly innocent, a few different people tried their luck with Rose and I but moved on once we showed we weren't interested.

The Doctor had been missing all of tonight, but I had seen Jack here and there intimately dancing with both a male and a female individually at different times. We had caught each other's eye a few times and I sent him a thumbs up to indicate he had picked some good choices. It made sense now when he was saying his charms work on both genders.

_You know I wish I had Jessie's girl_

_I wish that I had Jessie's girl_

_Where can I find her, a woman like that?_

_Like Jessie's girl_

_I wish that I had Jessie's girl_

_I want, I want Jessie's girl_

Rose and I sang loudly (and quite badly) and danced silly at the very last musical parts, and we began cheering and clapping loudly after the song finished.

"Awww, I love you! I hope The Doctor lets you stay." Rose smiled widely at me, giving me a hug.

"You mean, travel with you guys?" I asked wide-eyed, getting caught a little off guard.

"Yeah! Look, just enjoy the night. I want you to come with us, and I'm pretty sure you've made quite the impression on Jack. But look, we'll worry about that later, let's dance." Rose said, giving me a light tap on the arm indicating to move back onto the dance floor.

I was about to follow her back on, but a tall, broad figure appeared in front of us.

"I'm sorry to cut in Rose, but I would like to ask the newest member of our group for a dance, in a completely platonic way as to not spook her." Jack said to Rose, but sent me a wink.

"Oh, but does she say yes?" Rose asked, smiling in an amused way and crossing her arms.

"Well, I've been dancing with Rose all night, and it's been fun. So, sure." I said to Jack, accepting his hand and walking to the middle of the dance floor as the DJ finally put on the next song.

"I know this song!" I said loudly to Jack, grinning as the upbeat modern (Well, modern compared to traditional as well as the fact it was a brand new song in 1982) Celtic style music.

"Yeah, I don't. Only a select few songs ever make it through history." Jack replied, and I just sent him a nod, unsure how to reply as I was still wrapping my head around this time travelling business.

He took my hands and I sent him an odd look as this was hardly an appropriate song to dance to in that kind of way, but I laughed and shook my head anyway as I didn't really care about what these people thought of me anyway.

_Poor old Johnnie Ray_

_Sounded sad upon the radio_

_Moved a million hearts in mono_

_Our mothers cried, sang along_

_Who would blame them?_

As this part was sort of up beat, Jack and I were just swinging our arms and moving our feet, with Jack sometimes letting me spin around. I let him lead because he looked like what he was doing; I on the other hand had never danced before, not in a formal setting anyway. My school organised a debutante type event, but I was one of the few girls who opted not to go, I got drunk instead and went to a party. Good times.

I noticed a few people around were stopping to watch Jack and I. I thought they'd be laughing and thinking we were lame, but most were clapping us and actually looked entertained.

We kept doing this right up until when the slower parts of the song (Which was 'Come on Eileen' by the Dexys Midnight Runners) when Jack slowed me down and started to do a foxtrot-like dance. Was it the foxtrot? I knew nothing about this rubbish, but it was a more traditional and formal way than what we were just doing.

_(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay  
>Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)<em>_  
><em>_Now you are grown, and now you have shown, oh, Eileen__  
><em>_(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay  
>Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)<em>_You're grown__(Said, come on, Eileen, these things they are real)__  
><em>_So grown__(And I know how you feel)__  
><em>_Now I must say more than ever__  
><em>_Things 'round here will change__(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay  
>Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)<em>_  
><em>_I said toora-loora-toora-loo-rye-ay__  
><em>_(Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay  
>Come on, Eileen, too-loo-rye-ay, toora-toora-too-loora)<em>

As we were spinning around the dance floor, most people moved to the side and formed a circle around us, cheering, singing and clapping along. Jack and I just grinned at the attention, but Jack kept up his showmanship and led me well, making my sloppy actions look great by association.

I then broke apart from him as the music began to get faster and shouted out "EVERYBODY IN!"

As the music returned to normal pace, a few people joined the inside circle and began to dance wildly. Leading by example, the rest of the people who had gathered to make the original circle abandoned their post and joined into the dancing.

_Come on, Eileen, oh, I swear__(Well he means)__  
><em>_At this moment, you mean everything__  
><em>_(In that dress)__Whoa, my thoughts__(I confess)__  
><em>_Well, they're dirty__  
><em>_Come on, Eileen__Come on, Eileen, whoa-oh-oh__(Well he means)__  
><em>_Oh-ho-ho-ho__(Everything)__  
><em>_Ah come on, Ah come on_

Everybody cheered as the song ended, and a lot of people came to pat both Jack and I on the back as we entertained everybody for the entire song. I sent Jack a smirk, and he sent one back, and then led me over to a quieter part of the loud pub.

"I hope that has made you feel a little more comfortable around me." Jack said to me, putting an arm on my shoulder.

"I hope that makes you remember that song." I smiled weakly at him.

"Yeah if I were to hear that song again I'd definitely remember it, thanks to you. But I'm serious, you should now know we can have fun together, and I hope you've warmed up to me." Jack said to me.

"Jack, settle. I can tell it's not your thing to be awkward so don't do this whole unconfident thing, it doesn't suit you. Also, it wasn't awkward until right now when you bought it up again. So no, we're cool, Let's go find Rose and dance a bit more, until The Doctor reappears." I smiled at Jack, and he smiled and nodded, following me back to the dance floor.

* * *

><p>Running word count: 8,653<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys, this is late I know. I've got a real treat planned for you though, if I can quickly push through and write an entire chapter today. This would have been out last night but my boyfriend ended up coming over and I fell asleep on him as we were watching Harry Potter, so hopefully I can finish the next chapter today after I had to spend some time finishing this one.

* * *

><p>A few songs later I excused myself from Jack and Rose and decided to head outside to gather my thoughts. I had been fine all night, but it just hit me all of a sudden. I was in a freakin different time. It was amazing. So damn amazing. But at the same time, it scared me so much. I was in a different place in time, where anything could happen to me. Something could easily go wrong, I could wind up here forever and nobody would know what happened to me. I would just be a disappearance case that never got solved. My family would be worried sick. Has this happened to a lot of people who have randomly gone missing?<p>

My thoughts were taking over, and Rose and Jack kept sending me worried glances. I told them I was fine but still feeling a bit hungover from the previous night and would be waiting just outside for them after getting some fresh air. They both offered to accompany me but I told them I'd be fine.

I made my way out of the club, and one of the bouncers approached me.

"You okay, sweetheart?" The bouncer asked, sensing I was troubled.

I then looked around. The street was fairly empty, especially for a bustling Saturday night. I then remembered smoking wasn't banned in pubs yet, so it was rare for someone to leave unless they weren't coming back.

"Thanks for your concern, but she's with me." I heard The Doctor say kindly to The Bouncer, before indicating for me to follow.

I didn't say a word but followed him back around the corner where he opened The Tardis and we both went inside. He indicated for me to take a seat at the console, and I did.

"How are you finding the time travelling business so far?" The Doctor asked me.

"It's great, it really is. It's great being able to see history for myself. The unfortunate thing about history is it's a game of Chinese whispers. Stories get passed down through generations. Things get added, and things get subtracted. By the time it gets passed to my generation it's been changed. By the time my generation passes on it gets changed. I know it's a bit dumb because it's only the 80s, but it's still technically history, and one day it's going to be ancient history." I said to The Doctor, a small smile on my face.

"Yet you look troubled." He stated to me, a crooked smile on his face.

"Well, yeah. It's a lot to adjust to. I guess I always have been a bit sceptical and believed something strange was going on, it seems everything has changed for the twenty first century you know with the spaceship over Lond-" I began to start, but The Doctor cut me off.

"There is a lot to adjust to, such as laws of time travel. Since what you were saying doesn't ring a bell I had to cut you off as it's obviously happened in your past, but my future. So I can't know about it yet." The Doctor said.

"But I, what? I don't get it." I pouted.

"You'll pick it up as you go along. It'll become normal to you soon." The Doctor said to me.

"Hang on, who said I'm coming with you guys after tonight? I thought this was meant to be a one time thing?" I said to The Doctor, cocking up an eyebrow.

"Well nobody said it wasn't going to be permanent did they? You're a good person Natalie Williams, I'd like to invite you to come travelling with us, I believe you could add a lot to our team. But ultimately the decision rests with you." The Doctor said to me.

I thought about it for a moment. This was quite honestly the best offer I had ever received in my life. It would be insane for me to pass it up, and I would quite possibly regret it for the rest of my life. But it could also be the most selfish too. I would essentially be abandoning everybody I know, and as stated before, if anything happened to me, no one would know…

"You know what motto I've always lived by? Don't take time to think about large decisions. You can easily talk yourself into, or out of something. I always try and go with my very first reaction of these things. The answer would be yes." I said to The Doctor, trying to contain a huge smile.

"Great! We'll go back and get Rose and Jack and then head off to our first real adventure!" The Doctor beamed, running to the other side of the Tardis.

"Wait! I know you can't promise anything because nothing is certain. But just for a false sense of security, can you promise to try your hardest to give some closure to my family if anything were to happen to me? That's the only thing I really care about. I know what I'm agreeing to is dangerous, but living is dangerous. Get busy living, or get busy dying right?" I said to The Doctor.

"That movie technically isn't out yet, at least right now. But I promise you Natalie Williams, I will do everything in my power to keep you safe so you can return to your family." The Doctor said to me, growing serious.

"Thank you. Um, do you mind if I have a nap? I've been tired since I woke up this morning, in 2010. It's now 1am in 1982, I'm not even sure what the time would be if I was back home. I'm pretty damn sleepy." I sheepishly smiled.

"Of course. You'll get your own room. Just go down there, and the Tardis will guide you to your new room. I'll go and locate Rose and Jack and tell them the good news. Sleep tight." The Doctor grinned, before bounding out of the front doors.

I wasn't sure what time I woke up the next day. My phone was still working (Well, I had no signal, but other than that) and it was apparently 12:37PM. However that was the time from where I came from. I had absolutely no idea where I was right now. There weren't any windows in the room. Even if there were it probably wouldn't be any help.

I could be anywhere in the world at any time in history, and it was an eerie as hell feeling.

I got out of the guest bed and made my way to the mirror and sighed when I took in my appearance. My hair was fairly greasy after the previous two nights, and my makeup had mostly rubbed off, except for my smudged eyeliner and mascara. I cared for about three seconds until I realised if I was going to be travelling with these three people they would be seeing me like this constantly.

I flattened down the clothes I was still in from last night and left the guest room, I was in. I had no idea what direction to head In, but luckily a path was illuminated for me, and in not time at all I found myself in the Console room with The Doctor and Rose.

"I see The Tardis has led you here. I hope you feel a bit more rested." The Doctor said to me and I sent him a smile as a response.

"Unfortunately you missed a pretty wild adventure. Our body clocks are different to yours so we were still wide-awake. We're currently stationed on the planet Alinab, where The Doctor, Jack and I helped extinguish a large fire. Friendly people." Rose grinned at me.

"W-what do you mean, the planet?" I stuttered, my eyes widening.

"She means this." The Doctor responded, walking over to The Tardis doors and throwing them open.

I had a peek outside and was shocked at what I saw. It seemed like an ordinary quaint countryside town, however the sky was a pale yellow and the vegetation was pastel colours, not the usual luscious green. This definitely could not be Earth.

"Are you really more shocked that we can travel to other planets, than the time travel thing? Doesn't it seem more plausible that we're not alone in the universe?" Rose asked in response to my reaction.

I took a few steps away from the doors and put my hands in the air to mock defence.

"I give up being amazed. I'm not going to be surprised anymore." I argued.

"We've barely even begun to scratch the surface. Prepare for the best adventure of your life. But first, back to 2010 so you can get your affairs in order." The Doctor grinned, and without warning began to run around the Console and began doing things such as flicking switches and pulling levers.

"I seriously suggest you hold onto something." Rose said to me, and I grabbed the closest pole just as we began to spin off.

Travel in the Tardis was a hard feeling to describe. I vaguely remember watching the Tardis disappear when I was drunk, and I remembered it fading away after The Doctor dropped me off. However when you're inside, it feels completely different. As you take off, it feels as if your stomach is fighting its way up your body towards your mouth, and then as you land it then feels as if it has dropped to the floor.

It sounds unpleasant, bur in reality it's the greatest adrenaline rush I've ever felt, and I was secretly hoping it would never go away. We landed, and all was silent for a few moments.

"Go on, take a peek outside." The Doctor said to me.

I walked over to the doors and cautiously opened them. I was now outside my front yard, and it was still dark out.

"It should still be the same night. Go inside and pack, call your family, do what a young girl in 2010 needs to do." The Doctor said.

I told Rose and The Doctor I wouldn't be too long and I headed back inside my house.

I went into my room to grab my suitcase and my bedside clock caught my eye. 9:29PM, I had only been gone about an hour or so.

I then checked my phone. 12:50PM. Was it even worth taking my phone? Pretty much all of its functions would be useless to me. I packed my phone charger, laptop and laptop charger anyway. At the very least they would become a way to measure how long I'd be gone for.

I then turned to my wardrobe. I hated packing for normal trips. How would I handle packing for a time-travelling, intergalactic trip?

"I think that's everything." I said to everyone was I wheeled my suitcase on board. Jack had woken up and helped me carry in two other bags.

"I wouldn't worry too much. We can travel to anywhere that ever has, or ever will exist. If you forgot something, we can easily get it." Jack grinned.

"So, do I need to call work?" I asked The Doctor.

"Nope. Lucky for you, you live in a year that's easy for the Tardis to navigate. Makes a great holiday, you don't need to use any holiday time saved," The Doctor joked.

"So I don't need to organise anyone to feed the cat?" I asked him.

"Same logic applies." The Doctor responded.

"I guess all that's left is letting your family know." Rose said to me, and I could tell she was trying to guide me through her own experiences.

"How did you tell yours? It's a hard thing to announce. I'd be chucked in the looney bin." I weakly smiled, dreading what I was about to do.

"I ran off for a while. Trust me, you need to this. You can always call back the second we get back and say you were mucking around or something. You'd definitely be safe by then and it wouldn't matter. But you won't enjoy your time if you have this hanging over your head, trust me." Rose said, putting a hand on my shoulder in order to convince me further.

I nodded, and went through the open Tardis doors, shutting them behind me for privacy.

I contemplated on whom to call first, before finding myself punching in my mum's number.

My mother and I had a bit of a volatile relationship. She was a huge bitch sometimes, I moved out of her house and in with my dad when I turned sixteen. We weren't on speaking terms at the moment, she called me up one night drunk and proceeded to abuse me. Apparently after that behaviour the onus was still on me to call her next time, as that apparently counted as her turn to call me. No thanks.

But here I was now. This wasn't going to be pleasant, but Rose was right. I couldn't have it hanging over my head. I had to call her.

"Hello?" My mother answered, already sounding annoyed.

"Hey Mum, it's Natalie." I responded, trying to sound cheerful.

"…what do you want?" She asked, already sounding annoyed.

I rolled my eyes, but kept my composure. She worked weird hours so her body clock was out of whack, she was probably already in bed when I called. But I didn't regret calling her, it was now or never.

"Well, on a whim I've decided to travel with a few friends. We're leaving right now, and I don't know how phone reception will be, so I decided to call to let you know. I thought it would go to the answering machine, I didn't think you'd answer. Sorry." I cringed, making it up as I was going along.

"This is all a little too suspicious. I thought you didn't have many friends left, after you and Pierre broke up…" My mother shot at me.

Ah, of course. Any way for her to rub in my most recent break up. I had recently just gotten out of a two-year relationship with a disgusting excuse for a human. He was a lot older than me, and manipulated a naïve me into going out with him. I had been trying to break it off with him for a long time, but it always ended up messy. I lost a lot of friends while I was with him, mum was right.

But she bought him a lot to make me feel ashamed. I think she wasn't trying to be nasty; she was trying to rub it in so I wouldn't make a similar mistake again. But I hated hearing about it, and I just wanted to move on. I went out with a disgusting borderline-pedo, but since I finished school last month I've already dated quite a lot of people. I was moving forward, and I had come out stronger.

"Yeah well, I'm reconnecting with a few old ones, and making new ones. So yeah, I'm going travelling. It probably won't even be for that long." I said to her.

"Well, who are you going with?" My mother sneered at me over the phone.

"Um, well, my friend Rose. She's a year older than me, she's really nice. Then there's The Doctor, that's his nickname because um, he's really smart. Then there's this other guy we know, Jack. He's a really nice guy, and he's pretty big and stuff, he's pretty much vowed to protect both Rose and I." I said to her.

"You're travelling with two males you don't know very well? I haven't heard of this Doctor guy, or this Jack guy. I don't like this, Natalie. What about your father? You can't just neglect him! And the cat, who's going to be feeding the cat considering no one is at home?" My mother shrieked at me.

"Whatever. I'm eighteen, and I don't even live with you. Try and stop me." I smirked, and she feebly screamed 'don't you dare hang up!' as I was doing just that.

One down, two more people to go. I couldn't tell my mother the truth because she would go insane and immediately call the police to say I was insane, and to track me down and the alike. At least this way she thinks she can't catch me. Well, she can't. But she knows that now.

I decided to call my sister now. Her name was Eleanor, after The Beatles song, but she had gone by the name 'Elle' her entire life. We were technically half sisters, same father different mothers, but we had never really thought about it like that and always referred to each other as 'sisters' and nothing less.

Our relationship was fairly good. We weren't super close, but we had always gotten along pretty well. There was a ten-year age gap, which stopped us from being close, and we had only lived together for about a year and a half before she moved out of home.

I was expecting her to take the news of me travelling a lot better than my mother did. She was a traveller herself, she had been around the world. She had also lived in Cardiff a few years ago with her then-boyfriend, so she was used to being out of London.

Her phone rang out, as I expected it would on a Saturday night. She would definitely be out. I was in the middle of leaving a message, when she instantly called back.

"What's wrong?" She asked, and I realised how it looked. The only time I ever called her was when something was wrong with dad.

"For once, nothing. I just thought I'd let you know, I'm going to go away for a few days in order to get away from everything. Dad did suggest I should go away, he's told me to not visit for a few days you know, so I respected his wishes." I said to Elle.

"I know, he told me. He said you've been working full time at the supermarket, and after work every day you've been catching the bus to see him. You should go and have a great time. Where are you going, anyway?" she asked me.

"I um, what's your take on time travel?" I responded, deciding to test the waters.

"What the hell are you on about, Natalie? Time travel? Do you really think that's appropriate to joke about at a time like this?! By all means go away, but don't be ridiculous!" Elle screamed into the phone, and I was taken aback by her sudden outburst.

Granted, she was probably a bit tipsy, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. I shrugged, ready to do some damage control.

"Hey, calm down. I'm not joking. There's this tour called time travel, it's where you go to the countryside and live like they did a long time ago. I thought you might have heard about it, that's all. Just me and a couple of mates are going to do that for the next few days." I said to her.

"Oh…okay. Sorry. Sounds like fun though. Did you need me to come around and feed the cat?" She asked me.

"Um…unless you hear otherwise, should be okay. I've got someone lined up. Thanks, though." I said to her, as I heard excited screaming on her end.

"Alright. I won't keep you. Have lots of fun, you deserve it. I'll speak to you when you get back. Bye Natalie." My sister said quickly, and then hung up.

I then smiled as I went through my phone to find the next number I needed. This would be the easiest call; my father would take this the best out of anyone I knew.

"Good evening, Unitude Hospital, Grace speaking." I heard the front desk attendant answer the phone.

"Um, hey, hi there. Can I please be transferred through to a patient's side phone?" I asked the woman.

"Of course you can dear. Just give me the patient's name and I'll transfer you through." She said to me.

"Oliver Wilson." I responded, and she said she'd put me through now.

My father and mother never married, so I received my mother's surname, which was always kind of amusing that Williamson and Wilson sound a bit similar.

Apparently I was meant to get my father's surname but some drama happened which I never got told exactly what happened.

All I remember is some messed up day I skipped school to get my birth certificate to get my provisional license now I was seventeen at the time. I got my birth certificate and noticed my father's name wasn't on it and it was left blank. Then some stranger stopped me on the street and started saying all this weird stuff, but that was irrelevant. I got home ready to ask my father and then found out he was in hospital – the first time his health started deteriorating.

So I called my mother who then abused me for getting my birth certificate in the first place, that's right, how dare I get my own birth certificate! Who then gave me some crap like my father didn't want me so he refused to put his name on it.

My father's side of the story was that my mother didn't want me on it so she could claim welfare and get a council flat if she ever needed it for being a single mother. That seemed more plausible but didn't seem a hundred percent correct. But it was all in the past, and it seemed petty to bring it up now so I never did.

"Hello?" my father asked into the phone, and I was glad to hear he wasn't groggy, which meant I didn't wake him.

"Hey Dad! It's Natalie!" I said to him.

"Hi, how are you?" He asked, and although he didn't sound annoyed or anything he did sound surprised to hear from me, after all it was after ten on a Saturday night.

"Just so you know, the only reason I didn't visit you yesterday and today after work is because you told me to have the weekend off from visiting, not because I don't care." I said to him.

"I know, and you didn't have to call. Go have fun on your Saturday night." Dad said to me.

"I am. I'm just calling to let you know I'm going on a mini trip to the countryside with a few friends for a few days. It's going to be a real adventure. We're leaving in a second." I smiled into the phone.

"Well good. You should go and have a good time. I won't keep you, thanks for letting me know." Dad said to me.

"Alright, I'll let you get some sleep. I'll talk to you when I get back." I said to him, saying bye once again before hanging up the phone.

I locked my phone and put it in my pocket before turning back into the Tardis, shutting the doors behind me.

The Doctor and Rose beamed, with The Doctor clapping his hands and exclaiming "Right! Where are we off to now?"

Jack however, had a solemn look on his face. Did he know?

* * *

><p>Running word count: 12,529<p> 


	5. Chapter 5

"Here we go. We're travelling to Italy in the eighteen hundreds. Why not? It's good to experience a culture at a random point in time." The Doctor beamed towards us, as the travelling feeling I was becoming familiar with started running through my body.

But then something happened. Instead of the usual materialisation the Tardis seemed to do, we all lurched forwards. This happened for a very short while until we stopped. We had landed.

"At least we know we didn't end up in the usual destination. Let's see where we ended up than shall we?" The Doctor asked, clapping his hands before hurdling towards the Tardis doors and opening them quickly.

I shot Rose and Jack a look, and Jack spoke up before I could even ask.

"Before you even ask, yeah, that happens a lot." Jack smirked at me.

"The Tardis apparently goes where it's needed. But I sometimes think The Doctor's navigation skills quite aren't as good as he thinks they are." Rose laughed, and I sent her a giggle back before I ran after The Doctor head on.

This was my first real adventure, and I was eager as hell to have fun with it.

I took my first few steps outside and realised I was on planet earth, or at least a planet that closely resembled earth. I wasn't so sure anymore, if the universe was a wide place and as infinite as I used to imagine, anything was possible.

We were in some sort of town, there were stalls being set up around us. The sun, or whatever sun this planet used was only rising now, but it seemed that the streets were soon to be bustling, rather than in the 21st century where everyone would still be sound asleep.

I noticed Rose and Jack come out behind us, and The Doctor spoke up, as if he was reading my mind.

"We definitely are on earth, but what time period? Only one way to find out." The Doctor stated, and confidently strolled up to a fruit stall owner.

"Excuse me sir, but we've been travelling for quite some time and have lost our bearings a little. Care to tell us the date and where we currently are?" The Doctor asked the fruit stall owner.

"My good man, you are currently in Sarajevo, on the 28th of June." The fruit stall owner beamed.

I smiled at his politeness, his kind manner of speaking and his willingness to help out was much appreciated. However, I also noticed The Doctor who was next to me, wasn't paying full attention to the fruit stall owner. He was looking in the distance, and it took Rose bravely waving her arms in front of his face to bring his attention back to us.

"The year wouldn't happen to be 1914 would it?" The Doctor quickly asked the stall keeper, as if he were paying attention the entire time.

"Ah, your memory is sharp, but not as sharp as it should be. Can I interest you in some fruit?" the stall keeper asked, picking up a fruit that didn't look properly washed.

"Um, not today." The Doctor responded, before running back into The Tardis.

The stall keeper's demeanour changed quickly and he shot Rose, Jack and I filthy looks before telling us to scoot off. We were all pre occupied shooting each other weird looks at The Doctor's sudden change and we all immediately scampered off after him.

"What on earth is going on?" Rose asked The Doctor as she reached The Tardis first, getting into his face.

"We're in Sarajevo on June 28th 1914. A huge fixed point in time happened on this date, in this place. I know people criticise public schooling but surely you two must have some idea what's about to happen." The Doctor said to Rose and I, I'm guessing ignoring Jack as 1914 was far removed from his timeline in the 51st century.

"1914…world war one started that year. So if this is a huge fixed point in time as you put it, it's to do with world war one. June…of course!" I said, gasping as I looked at The Doctor who solemnly nodded his head.

"What? What is it? I used to wag history class…" Rose said, looking a little embarrassed and ashamed.

"World war one was sparked by a few things, but historians all agree the main factor was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. We're in the city and the day of this event. This is bad." I said to both Rose and Jack.

"So, the Tardis has bought us to this exact date, a date that changed the entire course of the world. I can see why this wouldn't be a coincidence, and this is a huge thing." Jack gasped.

A silence then fell over all of us. We were in a difficult situation as we were in the unknown. The Tardis had a knack of appearing where it was needed most. We all knew this, and we knew possible danger was ahead.

"I've only ever had one run in with who I think is behind this, but I've heard a lot about them. They call themselves the Peace Keepers-" The Doctor started, and I cut him off in excitement.

"So, they're like a time travelling UN?" I asked.

"Not exactly. The time travelling part is correct. But their name is a form of irony, it's the opposite of what they actually do. They're known for going to fixed points in time and trying to change the course of events. I don't know why, but we're going to find out." The Doctor said, a determined looked on his face while I shot Rose and Jack dark looks, afraid of what I'd find ahead.

* * *

><p>Rose and I sat on a bench on a fairly busy street, hand fans in our hand as we swatted air to our sticky faces. We had to use the wardrobe on the Tardis to wear period clothes. It was summer time and it was boiling hot – way hotter than London 2010 ever was.<p>

But it was still the early 20th century so women were meant to dress modestly. Which meant no miniskirts and tank tops for us. We were both donning dresses that went to the floor, and were tight at the torso. We also had to wear corsets to complete the look, with the sleeves being very loose, but fell down to our wrists.

In the wardrobe the Tardis had this really cool machine that would instantly do your hair to whatever period you were in. Rose hadn't used it before, she told me she preferred to do her own hair but we didn't have time, and we had to look as authentic as possible. The peace keepers couldn't know we were time travellers, we had to blend in.

So we had both weird styled updos, and we both blended into the surrounding street, it would be really hard for anyone to tell we were actually from the early 21st century.

Our job was to make sure the motorcade bombing attempt still happened. I had to read up on what happened, but it all came back to me. The first two assassins fail to act, and it's the third that throws the bomb, before a failed suicide attempt. It was mine and Rose's duty to make sure the third throws the bomb still.

I was guessing The Doctor placed Rose and I on bomb watch as it was a lot less heavy than what he and Jack had planned. It sucked we had to make sure a life was still lost, and it sucked we couldn't avoid world war one. But even me, a novice time traveller, could easily see the disastrous effects it could have on time and space if it didn't go ahead. It was a lot less pressure to look after a failed assassination than a real one.

"So, you've met Mickey. Do you have a special someone back home?" Rose asked me, in an attempt to make conversation while we waited.

"Well, not really, no." I responded, very briefly.

"Not really? That's not a straight no." She giggled, raising an eyebrow and smiling as she stuck her tongue through her teeth at me.

"It's a long story." I shrugged, in an attempt to drop the topic but Rose would not let it go, as she responded with 'we have time'

"Alright then. Well um, I finished school forever not too long before I met The Doctor, Jack and yourself. Like, a couple of weeks before not that day. Anyway, whatever. I broke up with my very first boyfriend during exams, so I'm now single for the first time since I was a baby, aka sixteen. So um, yeah. Dated a couple, started settling down with one but he turned out to be a massive tosser. So yeah, that's my love life." I rambled on, my cheeks turning red.

Rose however, was enjoying my discomfort. So she continued on.

"Why'd you break up? Why was the one you started settling down with a tosser?" Rose asked, sending me another cheeky smile.

"Ergh, I'd rather not talk about the boyfriend. He was much older and didn't treat me very well. The tosser, well um…his name was Henry. He apparently had just gotten out of a long term relationship himself and was the absolute sweetest boy I had met. But everything changed once the chase was over. He'd suddenly cancel every plan, or not even bother cancelling at all and make me wait up for him. Then he'd try and turn the tables on me and insinuate I was being clingy or unreasonable when I'd ask why he never even bothered to contact me. So yeah, tosser." I smiled, a little too bitterly.

"Tosser," Rose agreed "Did you get rid of him?"

"You betcha. Of course he did the whole implying I'm psycho thing, and said I needed to calm down, but whatever. So yeah, now I'm happily single and ready for real adventures." I grinned.

"Well, I'm happy for you. You're going to have the time of your life." Rose grinned back.

"So um, what about you? I know I'm prying here, but it appears you hold some non-platonic feelings towards The Doctor, at least a few tiny ones…" I trailed off, and began wincing at the fact I was being rude, I probably wasn't close enough with Rose to be saying this.

She however, seemed to like the chance to speak and opened up immediately. I guess she liked having a female around to talk with, she had been travelling with two boys for quite some time.

"Well, you know. You spend nearly 24/7 with someone of the opposite sex, you're bound to develop some kind of feelings, right?" Rose asked.

I only shook my head and smiled, I felt like she needed to let it out instead of bottling up her feelings inside. It probably wasn't healthy.

"No, you're right. Fine, I'll admit it out loud. I-I care for the Doctor. A lot." Rose said, her voice faltering between confidence and ending with a shaky stutter at the end.

"Feel better admitting that?" I asked, a cocky grin appearing on my face.

"Yeah, I do actually. You can't tell The Doctor though, or Jack. It would be pretty embarrassing." Rose stated, covering her face in her hands before I could see the red of it all.

"I won't, I swear. Jack already knows though, he made a comment to me previously. But it's okay, I won't confirm nor deny the allegations to him." I joked, but immediately regretted my statement when I saw Rose give me a cheeky look, and I could tell once again the topic was about to shift from her to me again.

"Been speaking to Jack hey? You're a good looking girl, he's a good looking guy. You're both after an adventure. Who knows what might happen?" Rose giggled, raising her eyebrows at me.

"Yeah I don't do the whole casual thing, no thanks. It'd also be hell awkward to be involved with a fellow traveller. No." I replied, scrunching up my face and Rose just continued on giggling.

"This is great. Even whilst saving the universe we can sit down and talk about boys, and dating, and romance." Rose stated, grinning widely.

I was about to agree with her, however I was cut short by people around me standing up and cheering loudly. The roads weren't packed, like the footage I saw of the JFK assassination, or anything. It was a random city in Europe in 1914, so I'm guessing these things weren't broadcast to the entire public. But there were still a few patriotic people around, ready to cheer on their leader. This is what drowned me out.

Rose and I stood up, and my heart began racing.

Our task was to ensure the assassination attempt still occurred, and that it still failed at this point in time. How on earth were we meant to do this? I have no idea what the hell I'm doing.

The pressure was making me feel anxious too. Maybe coming along wasn't such a good idea. Having so much responsibility was making me so nervous, what would happen if I failed?

"It should be all okay." Rose said, sensing my current apprehension.

"What if we fail? This is a lot of responsibility." I replied to Rose.

"Look, this time travelling business is a headache, I know. But the best way to deal with it is to realise whether we are here or not, this stuff would be happening regardless. But we are here, and we're here to do the best job we can. Okay?" Rose reassured me.

I nodded my head, and felt a little better. She was right. It was better for us to be here and make an attempt to save the day, than for us to not be here at all. Besides, The Doctor obviously thought Rose and I were up to the job by assigning us to this task.

The motorcade wasn't too far from us, and I could see all the personnel involved, including the Archduke and his wife. Before I could get a good look however, I noticed a man running through the crowd, knocking into Rose and I as he ran off.

"That's the first assassin, who failed to act. Come on, we need to keep fastly walking up the road. The second assassin should fail to act too, and the third who unsuccessfully assassinates the Archduke but successfully detonates a bomb is up there too. If we're to keep an eye on them, we need to walk." I informed Rose, grabbing her wrist to help direct her in the right direction as we scurried along.

We rushed past the small crowd that had gathered, earning the looks of pass byers. I know we were told not to bring attention to ourselves, but we also had a job to do, and it was a risk I was willing to take.

Besides, most people were too busy with the motorcade to notice two flustered females darting through the crowd up the road.

"I swear we don't have syphilis!" I called out behind me to two disgruntled males, who were muttering about 'unwed women out of control' as we accidentally brushed against them running to our next destination.

"Wait, what? Why are you telling them we don't have syphilis?" Rose asked, completely confused once we stopped at a nice spot up the road.

"I don't know, seems like something they'd blame for the way we're acting. It's the tail end of the Edwardian era, just before World War one. Which is the era after Victorian, and I know you've heard stories about how unaccompanied women were treated." I shrugged.

"O…kay… it's still unfair we have to deny having a STD just because we're women running down the street!" Rose argued, and I chose not to reply, as I definitely did agree with her. Nothing I could do though due to how people thought about sexuality and women's rights in 1914, I'm sure if someone from the year 2110 came to the year 2010 they would argue that women of my time were still oppressed.

We made our way up the street, next to the motorcade. The cars were travelling fairly slowly, I knew that cars would be pretty slow in 1914, nothing like flashy cars that public leaders travelled in these days. It was probably safer to travel a slow speed too, to watch for potential hazards.

"What in god's name are those two females doing unaccompanied? Running in a frenzy!" I heard the Archduke mutter to his wife, who was also shaking her head in disgust.

"We don't have any sexual diseases!" Rose shouted out, and I froze in both panic, anxiety, and for the ability not to laugh at the fact Rose said this so crudely to a huge public leader of his time.

I was wishing I could pat her on the back for her shine of feminism, but I couldn't. And not because it would be inappropriate and make us look worse at fitting in, but because something major had happened.

Just as Rose finished her sentence, a gunman appeared from behind us, shoving us out of the way to get a perfect shot of his two intended targets: the Archduke and his wife.

Unlike the history books, this one didn't fail to act, and he wasn't a bomber. He was an assassin from the future who had just changed history, and the fall out that may go with it.

The Archduke's final words he would ever hear were "sexual diseases" and suddenly the crude sentence didn't seem so amusing to me anymore.

* * *

><p>Authors note: So this part has been in production for like...9 months. I had most of the part written out, but my cat (R.I.P Kitty) peed on my laptop back then, and I got unmotivated to write. So that's why it's taken so long.<p>

Also I know the whole "Peace Keepers" irony thing is used in The Hunger Games - I had never seen the films or read the books until after I wrote about all of that. So it wasn't used to rip it off, but meh, this is time travel, I'll just make it relevant and link up throughout the story. It'll work :)


End file.
